EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s tariff deal with US President Donald Trump has been branded a “submission” by the French Prime Minister. Ms von der Leyen met Mr Trump in Turnberry, during the President’s Scottish golfing trip, and the deal was agreed on Sunday.
Prime Minister François Bayrou blasted the deal, which will see most EU imports into the US hit with a 15% tariff, and said it was a “dark day” to see the EU capitulate to American pressure. He wrote on X: “Von der Leyen-Trump Agreement: it is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission”.
As well as the tariffs, the EU also pledged $750bn (£558bn) in energy purchases over three years and an additional £47bn in investments in the US.
As well as the French PM, the country’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad also deplored the agreement. “The trade agreement negotiated by the European Commission with the United States will bring temporary stability to economic actors threatened by the American customs escalation, but it is unbalanced ,” he wrote on X.
He also warned: “But let’s be clear: the current situation is not satisfactory and cannot be sustainable. The free trade that has brought shared prosperity to both sides of the Atlantic since the end of the Second World War is now rejected by the United States, which is choosing economic coercion and complete disregard for WTO rules. This is a structural change. We must quickly draw the consequences or risk fading away.”